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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of beneficial externality generated by the World Heritage List (WHL) on residential property values in order to offer new insights into heritage discourses.

The study uses the hedonic price model to estimate empirically the difference in prices for residential properties located in the Old Rauma World Heritage. The study uses residential sales transaction data from the City of Rauma from January 2005 to September 2012 drawn from an online database called KVKL Hintaseurantapalvelu managed by the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies.

The research results indicate a positive, but insignificant, relationship between the property sale prices (euros/sqm) and heritage designation. However, the total sale prices are higher in Old Rauma as the properties are significantly larger in Old Rauma compared to other properties in Rauma.

Studies in heritage economics have assessed the influence of the property market on heritage listing and designation at either the national level, the local level or a mix of national/local levels. This paper contributes to the literature by analysing the impact of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world heritage designation on residential property values. UNESCO is the leading global institution which deals with the protection of heritage sites that transcend national and local boundaries.

This paper aims to investigate whether the practice of self-designation of developing country status in the World Trade Organization (WTO) risks irrelevance of the institution, having regard to legitimacy concerns and evolving trade policy considerations.

The methodology of this paper involves the application of critical analysis to assess the utility of regime overhaul vis-à-vis a detailed recalibration of the status quo; included in this are key examinations of whether the introduction of a definitive classification criteria will alleviate present challenges as well as critiques of alternative target-specific schemes.

This paper suggests that an ideal approach to the controversies surrounding self-designation steers away from pure income-based indicators to arrive at targeted special and differentiated treatment allocation. Such a framework anchors itself on principles of nuanced differentiation that support depoliticization and facilitate capacity building in developing countries.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper represents an original evaluation of the possible reforms available to the WTO concerning the present status and functionality of the mechanism underpinning the practice of self-designation of developing country status.

Toronto's heritage program is reporting year over year growth in both the number of listed and designated properties and the amount of money secured for heritage projects. At the same time, it is widely recognized that heritage trade skills are in decline. The purpose of this research is to examine Toronto's heritage policy in its regulatory and economic context to understand why heritage trades are struggling while the heritage program and the market for heritage professional services flourish and to suggest solutions based on existing policy tools.

This research looks at the policy documents at the federal, provincial and municipal level that determine the minimum standard for heritage conservation in Toronto. It refers to secondary research on the economic context for these regulations to understand how they are applied and why they tend to produce certain outcomes. It introduces the regulatory context set by Canada's Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places and the Ontario Heritage Act. It goes on to analyse Toronto's local policy in more detail including density bonusing programs, the Toronto Official Plan and Heritage Conservation District planning standards.

Toronto's heritage policy creates asymmetrical opportunities for heritage professionals and heritage specializing tradespeople. While the work that heritage professionals do is required or strongly encouraged by policy and increases reliably with the amount of funding secured for heritage projects, heritage tradespeople do not enjoy similar advantages. Their work is not required in the same way as heritage professionals' or encouraged to the same degree, and money secured for heritage projects does not necessarily go towards work that would engage the building trades necessary to maintain heritage structures.

The value of job creation in heritage trades is a mainstay of heritage economic advocacy, and there is growing interest in the value of these trades skills as a resource for sustainable building practices. There is relatively little research considering how heritage policy and theory affect career opportunities for workers with these trades skills, and none that addresses those systemic pressures in the context of municipal heritage programs in Canada.

Industrial heritage works within a world of contradictions, contentions and scalar liminality. Archaeologists and historians focus upon oral histories and discourses of tangible and intangible memory and heritage while planners and economists see industrial World Heritage, in particular, as a marketing ploy to redevelop deindustrialized spaces. Within this liminality, we explore the potential for geographical perspectives to solder such contradictions into transdisciplinary heritage assessments and tourism contexts. How might the spatial tools of landscape and scalar analyses expose alternative and sustainable futures within broader patterns of industrial heritage management and consumption?

Using three comparative cases, interview and landscape methods and conducting discourse analysis within a spatial and scalar framework, we explore the increasing presence of industrial World Heritage.

We present both an institutional reflection upon the complexities of heritage discourse across complex spatial configurations and the intersectional historical, cultural, political, environmental and economic geographies that guide and emerge out of World Heritage Designations. Framed scalarly and spatially, we highlight common interpretation, tourism and heritage management styles and concerns found across industrial World Heritage. We point out trans-scalar considerations for future municipalities and regions looking to utilize their industrial landscapes and narratives.

We believe that more theoretical groundings in space and scale may lead to both the flexibility and the applicability needed to assess and, in turn, manage trans-scalar and trans-spatial complex heritage sites. These perspectives may be uniquely poised to assess the complex geographies of industrial, particularly mining, World Heritage Sites.

Local governments use taxes on future increases in property values to pay for current economic development through tax incremental financing (TIF). TIF is a powerful tax tool used to spur improvements to a designated area. Proponents of TIF argue that it allows local governments to make investments without affecting previously established government and school district programs. Detractors argue that because the TIF designation denies existing overlapping districts (e.g., schools) the benefits of increases in property values, TIF can have a negative impact on a community. Empirical evidence on the economic and fiscal effects of TIF is mixed. This paper describes the potential costs and benefits associated with the use of TIF and then summarizes prior research on outcomes associated with this widely used property tax program.

This study examines the construction of essential labour during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Research questions include: (1) How have government policies shaped designations of essential versus non-essential labour? (2) What are the consequences of these designations for essential workers? To address these questions, the author employs a case study of custodial services employees at Prairie University, a large public university in a major Texas city (Prairietown). The author begins with an examination of federal, state, and municipal guidelines about COVID-19 safety and critical infrastructure in order to understand the policy landscape within which custodial employees at Prairie University were formally deemed essential. Drawing on theories of non-nurturant care work, the author shows how government guidelines for essential work released during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic discursively invisibilized cleaning labourers. The author then demonstrates how this invisibilization contributed to Prairie University custodial services staff members’ exposure to COVID-19. The author concludes by considering the implications of the findings for future research on care work and the construction of essential labour.

The purpose of this study is to examine the Google Scholar (GS) and Scopus citations profiles of library and information science (LIS) faculty members employed in central universities in India to determine their research online visibility.

The data was collected through manual searches conducted on GS and Scopus profiles by the end of August 2023, using the names of the faculty members along with their affiliations. The determination of the minimum sample size for each was calculated based on Cochran’s formula.

The study revealed that out of 104 LIS faculty members from 19 central universities, 78 (75.0%) faculty members have profiles on GS, while 61 (58.6%) of them are on Scopus. The study found that the faculty members have a substantial number of publications on GS, while their publication count on Scopus appears comparatively lower. The results suggest that certain faculty members have produced a modest number of publications but have received a substantial number of citations compared to their colleagues. Consequently, it can be inferred that there is no straightforward correlation between the volume of publications and citation metrics.

As the study exclusively focused on LIS faculty members working within central universities in India who have profiles on GS and Scopus, the researchers did not reach all LIS faculty members in India.

The significance of this research lies in its potential of insights into research productivity and its impact, which are crucial aspects of academia. The study provides valuable insights for individual researchers, LIS departments, institutes and universities in India and other countries to enhance their research performance and foster collaboration by establishing new research guidelines.

There have been no published research studies regarding the GS and Scopus citation metrics concerning LIS faculty members across all central universities in India.

This paper aims to deal with the grape sourcing strategies of wineries in the Canary Islands.

Sourcing decisions are analysed from official registers of transactions between wineries and their external suppliers. The main sources of information are harvest reports submitted by wineries containing data about observable dimensions of their purchasing decisions. The general behaviour in the wine-grape zones that make up the grape market in the Canary Islands is described, and different strategies of individual wineries are revealed. Grape purchasing decisions are interpreted in terms of the potential explanatory factors involved in the undeclared objectives of wineries’ sourcing strategies. Two research questions are considered in this study: the spatial dimension, which refers to plot location, and the social dimension, which refers to the relationships between wineries and winegrowers.

The location of grape producers is a key factor in achieving the desired wine quality for wineries. The sourcing strategy of wineries is also influenced by size, but the impact of size varies depending on the short and long-term objectives of wineries.

Typically the literature on grape sourcing strategies relies on interviews with winemakers. However, this paper analyses wineries’ sourcing decisions based on records and reports that reveal their decisions in the specific context of the Canary Islands.